Albanese outlines plan for nature restoration market prompting calls for more urgent action

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the new scheme would recognise private landholders who restored and managed habitat by granting them biodiversity certificates that could then be sold to other parties.

The biodiversity market would be underpinned by legislation and would function in a similar way to the carbon credit market, with the Clean Energy Regulator responsible for oversight of both schemes.

Legislation for a similar land stewardship scheme was developed by the previous government, but a spokesperson for the Albanese government said its scheme was focused not just on farmers but all landholders, including First Nations people and conservation groups.

The Australian Conservation Foundation said the government should be careful to ensure the scheme genuinely benefited nature and did not face the integrity issues that have plagued the carbon credit system.

Stasak said private investment in nature was welcome, but there was an urgent need for significant public investment as well as reform of national environmental laws.

The government has yet to set out key details of how the new market would work.

For example, it has not made clear whether it would exclude the purchase of biodiversity certificates as offsets for habitat destruction caused by development elsewhere.

A government spokesperson said protocols for the new market would be developed after a consultation process and an expert review.

Andrew Macintosh, the Australian National University professor who blew the whistle on the deficiencies of the carbon offset market, said a national scheme to incentivise biodiversity stewardship was overdue.

Megan Evans, a senior lecturer at the University of NSW in Canberra, said the proposal was similar to the scheme put forward by the Morrison government and moves to support private landholders were positive.

The opposition agriculture minister, David Littleproud, said it could not be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because it had already been done by the previous government.

The government has said it plans to respond to the review of national environmental laws by the end of the year.